{related_entries id="evnt_auth_1"} {/related_entries} and {related_entries id="evnt_auth_2"} {/related_entries}

Authors and commentators John Kampfner and Katrine Marcal discuss the growing gap between rich and poor and its implications for society. Is it morally justified to allow the creation of a ‘super rich’ that leave the rest behind? Is the growing gap between rich and poor actually holding back wider economic growth and financial wellbeing? Could it be a cause of social unrest? And what can we do to address the gap between rich and poor?

Kampfner is a former editor of New Statesman and a well-known commentator on politics and economics. In his recent book, The Rich, he tells how economic elites from ancient Egypt to today have gained their money and spent it and questions whether the development of today’s super rich is anything different.

Marçal is a journalist and economics commentator who offers a feminist perspective on economics. She is author of Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner?: A Story about Women and Economics, which satirises Smith’s concept of ‘economic man’ and argues for more women to engage in economics to create a more successful – and equal – economic model for all.

Discussions are chaired by Professor Ian Goldin, director of the Oxford Martin School and professor of globalisation and development at the University of Oxford.

This panel event is one of a series of roundtable talks and audience question time hosted by the festival’s ideas partner Oxford Martin School.